Haverfordwest knife threat woman spared further jail time

A woman armed with a knife dialled 999 and warned police “it will get bloody” unless they arrested her and kept her in custody.

Louise Wiltshire, aged 50, got her wish and spent the next five weeks in Eastwood Park prison near Bristol.

Wiltshire, of Fleming Crescent, Haverfordwest, admitted possessing a knife in a public place.

A charge of making a threat to kill during the same 999 call was dropped when Brian Simpson, prosecuting, said no evidence would be offered on that charge.

Mr Simpson told Swansea crown court today (wednesday) that on July 8 Wiltshire drank two bottles of wine and then telephoned the police to say she would stab her partner with a steak knife unless they arrested her.

Two police cars arrived in Fleming Crescent and Wiltshire walked out onto the road holding a kitchen knife in her right hand and a bottle of wine in her left.

“She said she wanted to be arrested and put into a cell to stop her drinking,” said Mr Simpson.

He said her partner had not felt threatened and felt she had done it “for dramatic affect.”

Paul Hobson, the barrister representing Wiltshire, said she had not begun offending until she was in her 40s and before then had held down managerial positions.

But since then she had been arrested several times, always after drinking.

Judge Paul Thomas warned Wiltshire that courts took the carrying of knives in public places very seriously.

“Your life has been taken over and spoiled by your drink problem,” he added.

It would serve no purpose, he said, in making her spend more time in Eastwood Park.

Judge Thomas sentenced Wiltshire to an intensive alternative to custody programme, involving 12 months supervision, an alcohol activity, 10 sessions on a thinking skills course and 100 hours of unpaid work for the community.